Aside from learning all about my 16 touring these days, I've been studying/learning a style of penmanship call Spencerian Script or Ornamenal Penmanship. It became popular in the US during the later part of the 1800's and lasted until around 1925 or so. I was wondering if anyone has examples of this 'fancy' handwriting associated with any model t documents?

BTW, one of Platt Spencer's students was a guy named Palmer - most of us learned the Palmer method of handwriting while in grade school.

My Dad always said he was taught the Palmer Method of penmanship.

Herb

Students don't learn penmanship, cursive, in our education system anymore. Substitute, keyboard.
No more nicely written notes from our kids...perhaps printing, but marginal.

I always admired the beautiful Spencerian writing, but I don't recall seeing any twentieth century samples.

Show us some.

Here yo go, Hal. Pulled from the internet. I guess now I have seen some modern samples.

I have my "Peterson" handwriting certificate from grade school. We would spend at least an hour a week on how to properly make the loops and curves in a letter and had to be sure you crossed the line on the writing paper at the proper location. The ruler would come out and slap your hand if you didn't hold the pencil properly. In order to get your certificate you had to write a page similar to the one showen but without the fancy art work at the top.

Dennis - You mentioned "holding the pencil properly". I attended a function at my grandson's school last year (grandparents day) at which time I called to the teachers attention the fact that my grandson holds his pencil in what appeared to me to be a very cumbersome and unconventional way. To make a long story short, the teacher did not come right out and say so, but it was very obvious to me that that particular school administration (and I suspect many others) really do not place any importance in how a student holds his or her pencil; in fact, handwriting seems to be just about totally disregarded nowadays. I guess I'm just "old" and "old fashioned" but it think this attitude by todays "educators" is a huge mistake.

The ball point pen appeared in the U.S. in 1945, and that pretty much ended ornamental penmanship. I guess the computer may end handwriting!

These days, of course, you don't have to learn different types of penmanship, you can....

Hard for an old guy like me to think this way, but when you really do think about how things have changed, and how that seems to continue whether we like it or not, I suppose maybe it makes sense that the cursive style of handwriting might just die.

Again, when you really think about it, in the past quite a few years, calligraphy has become quite an interesting and popular hobby, and, who knows,.......our long-standing and commonly accepted cursive style of handwriting might someday just be a HOBBY!

I hear you Dick, and that seems to be the attitude of our educators and elementary school administrations, however, I think there will always be a need for some people to carry a pencil or pen in their shirt pocket in order to write (or print) a note in line with whatever their work out in the field is and where there are no electronics, and where they can't just "change the font"!

Come to think of it, there may come a day where people will find it very difficult to read cursive as it will have become so uncommon. Yeah,......the "times" they are a' chang'n, huh?

Harold, how long do you think it will be before people who can tell time on an analog clock are in the minority?

I don't know "how long", but I think it's started already. Just the other day in one of those many Christmas catalogs that my wife gets this time of year, I saw an interesting alarm clock advertised. Can't exactly remember the details, but I think if you push the "snooze button", a triangular area between the center of the clock and the distance the minute hand still has to go until the alarm goes off at the time the alarm was set for shows in a solid red triangle that becomes a smaller and narrower solid red area until the the red disappears entirely and the alarm goes off.

Fraktur in Germany stopped being the required way in about 1937. I have a copy of a 1906 birth certificate where the handwritten portions are very difficult to read now (especially since I am not of German background).

Thomas, Fraktur was the printed type, the handwritten one was S�tterlin (the last line in my example above). When I was in the sixth grade, I was interested in languages, so my grandfather gave me several of his college German books. Problem was that they were from around 1900 and were all printed in Fraktur. I learned to read it, and was delighted to learn several years later that it wasn't being used any more...

I could manage Fraktur, but S�tterlin eluded me, for the most part. On the rare occasion when I encounter it, I scan it and send it to a German translator friend in Kansas City who is older than I am and able to read it.

Interesting that Suetterlin with the umlaut over the U (instead of ue) shows up fine in the message preview, but not in the message itself.

Ain't technology grand?

I just finished a two week course in this style of writing given by one of 11 master penman in the entire world. This was by Michael Sull..he has spent his life's work bring this style back to life. I thought it was a wonderful overlap with the time period of our T's. I'll bet dinner there are some T documents out there written in this style. Of course, there are two reasons to write - one is informative, like writin a grocery list and the other is to communicate from one human soul to another. Here is a quick like to a sample: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bellisstudios/2694122491/in/photostream/

I'm left handed, and the books we had in elementary school on handwriting just showed left handed folks writing with the paper and pen/pencil held as a mirror image to right handed people. That's a sure way to make certain left handed handwriting will have a reverse lean to it. Fortunately, my teacher sort of understood what I was showing her--by leaving the paper in the "right handed" position, my handwriting looked "proper" (although it was never very good!) and I didn't have to loop my hand around to stay out of the fresh ink.
The only time I cursive write nowadays is to sign a card or write a check.
T'
David D.

Actually, nne of the tricks to all of this is that the 'nib' was held at an angle in an oblique pen holder. It allows the slant of the writing to be in the 52 degree position from vertical. Check this out if you have a moment...I think it's just very cool that many people were writing this way as our cars were rolling off the line. So much has been lost....this is my friend and mentor, Michael Sull - he was Regan's personal calligrapher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyPJuFYluik

Steve,

One of the reasons your handwriting is shakey, is that you are using your fingers to write instead of the larger muscles in your wrist, elbow, ad shoulder. There should be very little movement in the fingers....

I know we're waaayyyyy of topic, but I'm glad to finally be able to contribute something to this forum :-)!

Up here Steve, at the office supply stores, you can buy Pilot disposable fountain pens, I think the model is varsity. Trouble is though, the nib is too big for most of the cheap paper one encounters these days. I've an older bakelite Eversharp that I quite like...

As I don't use pens much, what really irks me, are the crappy pencils commonly found. Ugh, gritty, terrible tray lines. Also, I've noticed that many of the Ticonderoga's now, have a finger joint on one side of the wood which breaks when you carry them in your pocket.

I for one, can't think without a pencil and a pad of paper in front of me.